So the background is that I'm working for the centre of expertise which informs
the Scottish Government on the epidemiology to prepare for animal
disease outbreaks, and so part of that, I think, is an intersection of science with
policy, and understanding where science fits in with the law is, I think, reasonably important.
So that was my primary motivation, and I think
it's an area of epidemiology that we don't think about very much.
So that is on one side, but then the personal side of it was just that I was really
interested, and I've been interested for a long time. So this seemed like
a good opportunity, because I work full time, and being able to do this by
distance was great, really.
I thought it was excellent. I genuinely am - not to sort of go into hyperbole
about it, but I really thought it was an extremely well run
programme, it was extremely well structured. It met my expectations - probably exceeded
my expectations, in terms of, I think the rigour and the standard of work that we...
the information that we were expected to get, and the information and the manner
in which we were supposed to kind of digest it, and then comprehend,
understand, and show our learning. So I was really pleased with it.
And the other thing that's great is that the standard of students as well in the
masters is very high, and that meant that actually you're getting a lot of really
interesting angles in the discussion that you're exploring, from lots of
different perspectives, so I thought it was brilliant.
There were a couple of topics - so in particular, one of the reasons that I wanted to do the course
was I saw the - I don't remember the title exactly - if it's international health
security module in the Medical Law and Ethics LLM, and I really thought that looked
really interesting, and part of what made that module exceptional was the
staff who were involved in it, the topics that were involved in it, how we had that discussion.
And then I really liked the opportunity where I was able to
choose my own final essay topic, which allowed me to explore something that
was closer to my work, which was then directly applicable, and actually could
feed back into my work in a really practical way, so the people that I'm
working with could then see the benefit of me undertaking this.
So that was really helpful.
So I am using it at the minute in my current work.
I think I, sort of, I have been asked to do or reflect on certain things that
I think have legal aspects, and I've been able to bring something to the
discussion that I don't think that I had before this masters.
I am hoping to integrate it, and while I'd like to kind of explore some of the connections that
I've made with people in the law school, to see if there are ways that we might
be able to integrate that into some of the postgraduate teaching in the
veterinary school, at the moment that's a hypothetical, an
aspiration, is what I should say. And then thirdly, if I could I would
love to take this forward, I would be very keen to do kind of more study in the
area, so that would be nice.
So for the people who are considering the course and maybe haven't decided,
I think if you've got to the point where you're even considering it, my
advice is just to do it, and commit, and go for it, because it's just a brilliant
experience, and a great education, and a good asset, I think.